The toxicology report on Baltimore Orioles pitching prospect Steve Bechler released today implicates the use of the herbal supplement ephedra in his death, and underscores once more the dangers of ephedra use, particularly when combined with other risk factors.

Recent studies suggest that steroid abuse among teenagers is on the rise. The study indicates that students at the 8th grade level (and even younger) are beginning to experiment with steroids with little understanding of their potential deadly side effects.

An athletic boost in the short term may mean health problems in the long term for teens who use performance-enhancing drugs, warns a youth sports medicine specialist from the University of Michigan Health System

USA Football has joined with a group of the nation's leading public health, medical and sports organizations to support legislation that relates to the regulation of dietary supplements that contain steroid precursors like ephedra.

Many physicians feel that some dietary supplements' should be considered drugs' because they contain known active ingredients, whereas dietary supplements' have little or no physiologic effects.

Harris said that the best analog on Earth for Mars is in Antarctica, "the coldest and most inaccessible place on this planet." She took the spring semester off from the university this year to conduct research on the polar ice cap, delaying her graduation from last May until next month.

Wadler, who is attending the ACSM Annual Meeting in St. Louis this week, said that the subject of steroid use in baseball peaked in 1998, when Mark McGwire admitted to the use of the testosterone precursor, androstenedione.

Leading research scientists are saying  that the detection of EPO and HGH abuse is quite difficult because they appear only in very very small quantities in body fluids. EPO increases oxygen uptake to the working muscles, and HGH improves muscle growth.

The average layperson might think age 10 a bit of a stretch. But according to several drug-use experts at The University of Montana, ergogenics aren't just for college and professional athletes. Their use starts as early as middle school and is common among high school athletes.

Parents don't have to sit helplessly by when they suspect -- or know -- their child is using a performance-enhancing drug. They should find out why their child is interested in using drugs and where the pressure is coming from. Is he or she getting wrong information from peers or from somebody at the gym?

"The benefits of higher testosterone levels have a down side, however," Booth notes. "Some, but not all, men with elevated levels of testosterone are more likely to engage in behavior that negates the beneficial effects of testosterone."

Scientists are increasingly concerned that sophisticated techniques for evading drug tests will make it difficult for testers to catch athletes using steroids and other drugs, especially at future athletic competitions when genetic-based enhancements are expected to be prevalent.

"We are not sure why women's testosterone elevation prior to competition is so much greater than it is in men. It is probably due to the fact that every day levels of testosterone are four times higher in men than they are in women.

Proposed a warning label for all ephedra-containing dietary supplements. The proposed label warns about the risks of serious adverse events, including seizure, heart attack, stroke, and even death.